Taxpayers who have already suffered through waste, fraud, delays and even a tragic accident from the budget-busting Big Dig are now getting a new kick in the pants: a bill as high as $333 million that has even Gov. Deval Patrick "fed up." In financial documents to be released today, the Patrick administration will formally disclose that costs have ballooned to at least $14.798 billion and may increase by another $160 million, pending the outcome of negotiations with contractors, sources confirmed. The cost correction comes as Patrick tries to exert more control over the project and the Turnpike Authority, whose...

--But popularity high despite his missteps-- Governor Deval Patrick remains a highly popular figure in Massachusetts, but his constituents are concerned about his performance as the state's new chief executive after several stumbles during his first months in office, according to a Boston Globe poll. Sixty-three percent of the 500 adults surveyed last week view the new Democratic governor favorably, which is comparable to his standing just before his landslide victory in November, when he received a 60 percent favorable rating in a Globe poll. But despite Patrick's continued popularity, only 48 percent approved of the way he is handling...

MEDFORD -- Nine months after Lawrence H. Summers left the presidency of Harvard University, his very name is enough to stir controversy at nearby Tufts University, where he spoke last night about "rethinking undergraduate education." Some professors boycotted his appearance, arguing that the former leader -- who has earned condemnation in past years for comments on women in science and for his dealings with African-American professors -- doesn't represent Tufts's values. While the auditorium was only about 80 percent full, a polite audience of mostly students gave Summers a friendly reception and kept questions to the subject of his talk,...

The moonbats are in mourning. In meltdown. In the muck, the mire. De-mooned. De-pressed. De-swooned. Ma-rooned. Pass the Xanax, please! What happened to Divine Deval, man of hope, the man who was to restore holier-than-thou progressives - dare I say liberals - to disinfect the Corner Office after 16 years of nasty, greedy, let-them-eat-cake-crumbs-and-like-it Republicans? "It started with the (inaugural) parties," says The Uber Moonbat of Roslindale, Erik Gehring. I first met him last fall, on his Trek 700 bike, Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, the belly of the moonbat beast by the Blissful Monkey Yoga Studio, the Wonder Spice Cafe,...

Not even one for the Gipper? The new icon of Massachusetts Democrats has rebuffed efforts to commemorate a day for Ronald Reagan, the last Republican to win the Commonwealth in a presidential election. And Reaganites are not happy. Governor Deval Patrick decided not to sign a proclamation recognizing Feb. 6 as "Ronald Reagan Day." A month into his term as governor, snubbing the Gipper's birthday has left Patrick open to partisan sniping. A prominent conservative said Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer declared the holiday.

Bay State Republicans are circling like vultures around a politically weakened John Kerry, vowing to field a strong challenger that may be able to capitalize on his fractured image and snatch his coveted U.S. Senate seat. One potential GOP challenger, state Sen. Scott Brown, said last night that he "would consider" a run against Kerry in 2008 and that the senator is ripe for the picking. "I think he'll get a challenge this time. I don't think he'll get a free ride," Brown (R-Wrentham) said. "His handling of himself during this Iraq situation has been outrageous. He needs to be...

YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when a public figure has written an indefensible book: when he refuses to debate it in the court of public opinion. And you can always tell when he's a hypocrite to boot: when he says he wrote a book in order to stimulate a debate, and then he refuses to participate in any such debate. I'm talking about former president Jimmy Carter and his new book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid." Carter's book has been condemned as "moronic" (Slate), "anti-historical" (The Washington Post), "laughable" (San Francisco Chronicle), and riddled with errors and bias in reviews across the...

WRKO Radio talk show host John DePetro has been fired after he made a derogatory remark Thursday about the sexual orientation and the weight of Green-Rainbow party gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross. George Regan, a spokesman Entercom Communications, the owner of WRKO, said this morning that DePetro had been let go. A full statement from the company would be released shortly, Regan said. DePetro apologized on the air Thursday after making the remark about Ross, who describes herself on her campaign website as "a white lesbian living in Worcester" and life-long activist for gay/lesbian civil rights and other "progressive causes." DePetro...

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon has been unanimously chosen to lead the United Nations for the next five years and accepted the position saying the world body needs to promise less and deliver more. The 62-year-old career diplomat will take over from Ghanaian chief Kofi Annan in January and will becomes the world body's eighth secretary general and the first Asian UN chief since U Thant of Burma led the organisation from 1961 to 1971. "I am deeply honoured to become the second Asian to lead the organisation," Ban told the General Assembly after his nomination Friday. "The true...

Democrat Deval Patrick yesterday accused Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey of planting a story about his rapist brother-in-law - an allegation hotly refuted by the lieutenant governor in an escalating war of words between the campaigns. Patrick angrily responded yesterday to a Herald report that state officials have ordered Patrick’s brother-in-law, Bernard Sigh, to register as a sex offender, accusing Healey of “dirty politics.” “This is the politics of Kerry Healey,” Patrick said angrily at a Cambridge press conference. “It disgusts me and it must be stopped.” Sigh, 54, is married to Patrick’s sister and was convicted of raping her in...

Prosecute The New York Times and censure Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.)? I have a better idea: Sit back and watch them self-destruct. Murtha and The New York Times have done more to aid the fight for Republicans to retain their House and Senate majorities in the last couple of days than Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman could possibly do all year. But no one, not even the guys who are so devoted to the GOP that they wear elephants on their ties, should be cheering. What has been lost by Murtha’s rantings and the Times’ irresponsibility can never be...

--House panel backs budget reductions-- WASHINGTON -- House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could force the elimination of some popular PBS and NPR programs. On a party-line vote, the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health and education funding approved the cut to the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes money to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. It would reduce the corporation's budget by 23 percent next year, to $380...

--But he earns a spot on primary ballot-- HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- New York Republican delegates designated John Faso yesterday as their candidate for governor, but the race that has divided party leaders will go to a September primary because former Massachusetts governor William F. Weld landed enough support to earn a spot on the ballot. Faso received 61.2 percent of the weighted vote to become the party's state convention designee after attempts to avoid a primary and unite the ticket failed. The talks, which included outgoing Governor George Pataki, lasted into early yesterday, state Republican leaders said. Former Massachusetts governor...

Tense calm prevailed in the capital of East Timor as Australian troops took control of security to stop a bloodbath between the Timorese military and rebel soldiers. After a day that saw at least 15 people killed as houses were torched and unarmed men gunned down, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Friday that his own Timorese forces were being ordered back to their barracks. He said Australian troops that landed on Thursday would take over security in Dili, the capital of East Timor -- which has been independent only since 2002. "Now the Australian troops are the ones holding the...

Don't try this at home--not if you want to have a working computer. Search for "Free Screensavers," we're told, and 64% of the sites you'll find are the kinds that can gum up your machine with spyware or a computer virus. A team of researchers, let by Ben Edelman and Hannah Rosenbaum of a British firm called Site Advisor, tried entering 1,394 popular search terms into the web's most popular search engines--Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask.com. They came up with a chart you may find both amusing and sobering. Even if you search for something as harmless as "I...

WASHINGTON -- Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska yesterday denied cutting a special deal with Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts to block a proposed wind farm off Cape Cod. Stevens cast his opposition to the Cape Wind proposal as an issue of states' rights. In a speech on the Senate floor, Stevens said Kennedy went along with his proposal to hand Governor Mitt Romney, a Cape Wind opponent, the power to veto the project. Environmental groups have accused Kennedy of reaching a backroom deal with Stevens to block Cape Wind, but Stevens said he wants all states to have the...

A judge has begun delivering the verdict in the trial of ex-deputy president Jacob Zuma as supporters rallied outside the court to hear whether the man they see as South Africa's next president will be found guilty of rape. Once the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma is accused of raping an HIV-positive woman at his Johannesburg home six months ago, a charge he denies, testifying that he had unprotected, consensual sex with the woman. AFP photo A guilty verdict could see Zuma spend between five and 15 years in jail, and bury the career of one of South...

Julia Thorne, an author, activist, and former wife of US Senator John F. Kerry, died yesterday in Concord. She was 61. The cause of death was transitional-cell carcinoma, a form of cancer, according to her daughter Vanessa Kerry. In a telephone interview, John Kerry called Ms. Thorne "a great friend to a lot of people" and spoke with emotion of her accomplishments as a parent. "She was the best mom two daughters could want," he said. "She was completely committed to the kids and their future." Her daughter echoed that view. "She was a phenomenal mother," said Vanessa Kerry, of...

WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy said yesterday that if fellow Massachusetts Democrat John F. Kerry makes another bid for the presidency in 2008, he would again back him. "If he runs, I'm supporting him," Kennedy said in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." With Kennedy's help, Kerry won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, but lost the race to President Bush. Kerry said last week he was taking a hard look at making another run for the White House in 2008 and intended to make a decision near the end of the year.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice braved anti-war protestors and hecklers during a friendly visit to the heart of Britain, Washington's staunch ally. Some 200 opponents of the US-led war in Iraq protested her visit Friday to Blackburn in northwest England, after two dozen anti-war protestors greeted her upon arrival in nearby Liverpool from Paris on Thursday night. "Condoleezza Rice, Go home!" many chanted when Rice, using a side door, entered a high school in Blackburn, the home town of her host, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who visited her home state of Alabama last year. "Hey, hey Condi Rice, how...

--Card has friends across the aisle-- WASHINGTON -- When Philip Johnston, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, visited his old friend Andrew Card at the White House a few weeks ago, Card made a point of introducing him to stunned White House staffers who couldn't believe that these two ideological opponents remained close friends. "He gets a charge out of it," Johnston said with a laugh. It is one of those quirks of Card's life that even in hyperpolarized Washington, Card is well liked across the aisle, especially among those who share his Massachusetts roots. Yet for five years as...

A scientific study pinpoints 20 areas in the world where animals are not at immediate risk of extinction, but where the risk is likely to arise soon. The regions include Greenland and the Siberian tundra, Caribbean islands and parts of South East Asia. The London-based research team believes its work will help conservationists prevent extinctions through early intervention - prevention, not cure. It is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study concentrates on a concept called "latent extinction risk". This means animals are not under threat right now, and may not be classified as in...

--Candidate says he has what it takes to run-- With the Democratic primary heating up, Deval Patrick has stressed that he will have the funds to wage a credible campaign in what is expected to be the state's most expensive gubernatorial election ever. Patrick is assuring supporters he has the personal assets to compete, as he takes on an incumbent attorney general with a bulging campaign account, and possibly a deep-pocketed venture capitalist. Indeed, after a lengthy career at private law firms, the US Justice Department, and as counsel to major corporations, Patrick has considerable resources. But he also has...

--Decision seen hurting Healey-- Bolting from the Republican Party, wealthy businessman Christy Mihos said yesterday he will run for governor as an independent, a decision that delivers a blow to GOP chances of victory in November. Mihos concluded that the Republican Party establishment and its party rules for qualifying for the ballot were stacked against him, said a Mihos adviser who asked not to be named. Christy Mihos (right), Deval Patrick, and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey at a Massachusetts Biotechnology Council gubernatorial forum yesterday. (David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff) Mihos's presence on the November ballot is widely expected to draw...

BOSTON --Congressional language that could kill a wind farm proposed off Cape Cod prompted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick to lash out Friday at Gov. Mitt Romney, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Attorney General Tom Reilly. Patrick, a Democrat running for governor along with Healey and Reilly, chastised them and Romney for not opposing language that would restrict wind farms near shipping lanes. The measure, part of an $8.7 billion Coast Guard reauthorization bill, is being considered by a House-Senate conference committee that has been meeting in private. Patrick favors the Cape Wind project, and said the silence by Romney,...

A Cardrona Valley ratepayers and residents association survey had come out in unanimous support of the valley's iconic bra fence to stay as it is, chairman John Scurr said yesterday. A letter from the association asking that the bra fence be allowed to stay would be on Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Clive Geddes's desk today, Mr Scurr said. "We've asked for it to stay as long as there is some caretaking of the fence. We don't want it getting higher, longer or suddenly being filled with boots and knickers as well. But it should stay because it's become part of...

--Conan O'Brien seeks sauna inspector position for his Halonen endorsement-- American comic and talk-show host Conan O'Brien made landfall in Finland on Saturday, starting a five-day visit that has been trumpeted for days on end on his Late Night With Conan O'Brien. The show is aired on NBC and relayed - at a few days' delay - to Finnish audiences via the teens & young adults cable/digital entertainment channel, subTV. The size of the crowd waiting to catch a glimpse of Conan O'Brien left the organisers open-mouthed. Police estimated that around 2,000 people packed in front of the VIP terminal...

Duluth, MN-Sunday's edition of The Family Circus incited violent riots among white people because of the introduction of a new playmate for Billy named Mohammed. To better understand why mobs have formed, psychologist Cliff Stevens explained, "For over 40 years, The Family Circus has never had a person of color in its sweet glaze of homogeneity. It's been the only whitebread refuge left in our society; the last stronghold of the innocent past. When confronted by today's moral ambiguity, we could always turn to that place frozen in the glorious time of the 50's. A time before those unnecessary civil...

Harper Lee wrote one of the great works of American literature and is portrayed in two new Hollywood movies. Now her friendship with high school pupils has led her to talk publicly for the first time since 1964, writes Paul Harris. snip In one of the strangest twists in the history of American literature, Lee has now emerged from her home in the small town of Monroeville, Alabama, for a brief moment in the spotlight. Lee has regularly turned down every interview request for decades but now, aged 79, has been tempted out of her shell by the University of...

In caucus, leads Reilly almost 2-1. In his first test as a candidate for governor, political newcomer Deval Patrick scored a sweeping victory at Democratic caucuses yesterday, trouncing Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, a two-term statewide office holder. Delegate slates pledged to Patrick, the former top federal civil rights prosecutor and business executive, rolled up margins at local party meetings that will give him close to a 2-to-1 advantage over Reilly in the count of committed delegates, according to several Democratic Party strategists around the state.

ALBUQUERQUE Jan 6, 2006 — A panel of linguists has decided the word that best reflects 2005 is "truthiness," defined as the quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts. The American Dialect Society chose the word Friday after a runoff with terms related to Hurricane Katrina, such as "Katrinagate," the scandal erupting from the lack of planning for the monster hurricane. Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said "truthiness" means "truthy, not facty." "The national argument right now is, one, who's got the truth and,...

Children's health will be put at risk from passive smoking if the government bans smoking in all restaurants and bars, according to dramatic new research out today. The study, which will provoke fresh controversy over whether a partial ban would be the better option, concluded that parents, particularly poorer ones, who are prevented from smoking in bars tend to smoke more in front of their children at home. Passive smoking has been linked to breathing difficulties and asthma among children.[snip] [Researchers] concluded that parents smoke more at home if they are prevented from lighting up in bars or restaurants. The...

A road ramp that uses passing cars to generate power has been developed. Dorset inventor Peter Hughes' Electro-Kinetic Road Ramp creates around 10kW of power each time a car drives over its metal plates. More than 200 local authorities had expressed an interest in ordering the £25,000 ramps to power their traffic lights and road signs, Mr Hughes said. The ramps generate up to 50kW of power. Around 300 jobs are due to be created in Somerset for a production run of 2,000 ramps next year. Plates in the ramp move up and down as vehicles pass over them, driving...

Bolivians have begun casting ballots in an election that could pick the country's first indigenous president and give South America another leftist, anti-US leader. About 3.6 million voters will also renew the 130 deputies and 27 senators of the legislature and choose, for the first time, nine provincial governors. Sale of alcohol has been banned in Bolivia since Friday and 50,000 police and soldiers have been deployed around the landlocked Andean country, roughly twice the size of France, to promote calm on polling day Sunday. Outgoing President Eduardo Rodriguez said that "after the campaigning, the polls and the speeches in...

A first group of UN peacekeepers expelled from Eritrea left the UN headquarters in Asmara enroute to Addis Ababa. The group of about 20, including a woman in tears, boarded a bus at the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) offices in Asmara that headed to the airport for a temporary relocation in the Ethiopian capital. A UN official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the team was relocating ahead of the Friday deadline imposed by Eritrean authorities. They are expected to board three flights, the first one taking off at 11:00 am (0800 GMT), then 11:30 am and...

They’re shaking things up at the Boston Globe — bringing in a small-town executive to help fix the big-city newspaper’s troubles. The Boring Broadsheet yesterday shifted President Richard Daniels to business development for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the freebie Metro and other entities owned by Globe parent New York Times Co. To replace him, the paper tapped Mary Jacobus, president and CEO of Indiana’s Fort Wayne Newspapers Inc. Jacobus currently oversees two Fort Wayne, Ind., newspapers: the News-Sentinel and Journal-Gazette — both much smaller than the Globe. The papers have a combined 99,000 weekday circulation vs. 414,000 at the...

Hey, Dr. Meir Stampfer of Harvard — this Bud’s for you! The renowned chairman of Harvard’s epidemiology department has been moonlighting for Anheuser-Busch — traveling to events across the country touting the “health” benefits of swigging beer. Stampfer’s next stop on the party train was a beer tasting luncheon scheduled for tomorrow at Boston’s upscale Radius restaurant — but he abruptly canceled late yesterday. While studies claim that moderate drinking — two drinks a day — can lower the risk of heart disease and reduce the risk of stroke and diabetes, substance abuse counselors say cheerleading the benefits of booze...

Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, who galvanized legions of youth in a campaign which unnerved a sitting president in 1968 and forced the Democratic Party to take seriously his message against the Vietnam War, died yesterday. He was 89. McCarthy died in his sleep at assisted living home in the Georgetown neighborhood where he had lived for the past few years, said his son, Michael. “He was a brave and courageous person who was very true to his ideals,” said Mary Murphy, a retired Framingham State College professor, who traveled extensively with McCarthy as he challenged President Lyndon B....

After 80 years in Hundred Acre Wood Winnie the Pooh is to get a female friend, replacing Christopher Robin, according to reports. The Walt Disney Company has decided to pair Pooh up with a red-haired six-year-old tomboy for its 2007 series, newspaper USA Today reported. Disney said My Friends Tigger and Pooh will keep the "trust, friendship and happiness" of AA Milne's stories. Pooh is being re-branded as part of its 80th anniversary celebrations. Active side "We got raised eyebrows even in-house at first, but the feeling was these timeless characters really needed a breath of fresh air that only...

According to Swedish school textbooks, Finns are poorly educated and abuse drugs, but are nonetheless excellent in sports. The same books keep quiet about the Finnish-speaking minority in Sweden. "The picture given by the schoolbooks of Finns and Finland is rather bleak and old-fashioned. Actually, it is as prejudiced as it was in the 1960s", observes Antti Ylikiiskilä, a lecturer in Swedish at Högskolan Dalarna, a university in Sweden. According to Swedish school textbooks, Finns are poorly educated and abuse drugs, but are nonetheless excellent in sports. The same books keep quiet about the Finnish-speaking minority in Sweden. "The picture...

He may look like an innocent cartoon bunny, but the star of a new award-winning video game by a Montreal-based designer has sultry intentions in mind. Lapis, the blue-hued main character of a prototype video game by Heather Kelley, a designer with Ubisoft, wants to help women take a "magical pet adventure'' to their "happy place." Lapis the cartoon bunny teaches how to reach orgasm by simulating the affect of pleasurable sensation. The prototype teaches how to reach orgasm by simulating the affect of pleasurable sensation on the cartoon. Players tickle, touch, tap, and stroke Lapis using the touch screen...

Largely ignored, Puritan laws like 'Common Day of Rest' revisited for the holidays... When Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly warned retailers that they would face prosecution if their doors opened on Thanksgiving, he was citing a nearly 400-year-old-law, penned by Puritans trying to enforce their idea of order on the dark shores of the New World. And as the year-end holiday approaches, authorities are watching for any supermarkets or department stores that try to do business on Christmas Day, citing the same timeworn legislation. This legal relic is part of legislation known as the blue laws: rarely enforced and largely...

At least 2 companies break rank, express support for options WASHINGTON -- Conservative groups love the idea of letting television viewers pay for only the channels they want on cable and are happy it's back on the table in Washington, where lawmakers and regulators are fed up with raunchy television. While the cable industry generally loathes the notion of an à la carte pricing system, at least one cable company and a potentially big cable competitor have embraced it. À la carte would allow cable subscribers to pick and pay for individual channels rather than being forced to buy packages....

LOWELL -- Shilo Lewis just wanted to blend in with the crowd. She'd seen camouflage clothing in fashion magazines, on the streets of the city, even in Lowell High School. But a head-to-toe camouflage ensemble got the high-school junior sent home from school yesterday. “They took one look at me and said, ‘You have to get picked up,' “ Lewis said about school officials. Lewis, 16, was wearing a camouflage bandana holding her waist-length hair in a ponytail, a camouflage jacket over a camouflage T-shirt, and a pair of camouflage pants. Lowell High junior Shilo Lewis had to be picked...

The United States will likely reach this week the grim milestone of 1,000 executions of convicts since 1976, although capital punishment is declining with fewer juries choosing death sentences. A convicted murderer was put to death by lethal injection in Ohio on Tuesday, making him the 999th executed inmate since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment 29 years ago. John Hicks, 49, was killed by lethal injection in the prison of Lucasville, Ohio, state prison authorities said. Hicks was sentenced to death over the 1985 murder of his mother-in-law and five-year-old step-daughter. He was under the influence of drugs during...

NEW YORK -- The Hall of Fame's doors will remain shut to Pete Rose, who won't appear on the baseball writers' ballot in his final year of eligibility. Commissioner Bud Selig will not rule on Rose's application for reinstatement before the 2006 ballot is released Nov. 29, according to Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer. Rose, who last year admitted he did bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the team in the late 1980s, doesn't understand why the rules, unless changed, won't allow him to ever appear on the annual ballot of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. "How...

Mocked for millions of dollars in Big Dig cost overruns, the Turnpike Authority has one cost-saving measure solidly in place: charging thirsty workers for sipping at the office water cooler. The Turnpike is sticking by the no-free-water policy even as ax-wielding Transportation Secretary John Cogliano has agreed to pick up the bubbler tab this month for another state agency – MassHighway. Cogliano made the call after learning that MassHighway rank-and-file were paying to drink up, while brass at his Executive Office of Transportation were hydrating for free. "It came to his attention that some people in other departments had water...

It may be the biggest contest of the Thanksgiving festivities. Bigger than the football games. More of a fight than the battle over the wishbone. Across the county, the true holiday battle is all about turkey: fried vs. roasted. The holiday bird will be the centerpiece of many a meal Thursday. For many, there is a distinct preference as to what style of turkey gets gobbled up for Thanksgiving. Both styles have their fans. A flash poll of Daily News readers showed the preferences split almost down the middle. +++ The Old School Way Representing the traditionalists is a county...

Nawa Jigtar was working in the village of Ghat, in Nepal, when the sound of crashing sent him rushing out of his home. He emerged to see his herd of cattle being swept away by a wall of water.[snip] When Ghat was destroyed, in 1985, such incidents were rare - but not any more. Last week, scientists revealed that there has been a tenfold jump in such catastrophes in the past two decades, the result of global warming. Himalayan glacier lakes are filling up with more and more melted ice and 24 of them are now poised to burst their...